Happy Goat Horror

Dark bleatings, my horror-loving tribe! As you might already know, I’m pretty grumpy about a lot of the remakes, sequels, and adaptations of my favourite horror over the last few years. To cheer myself up, I’ve compiled this list of 10 book to screen adaptations that I really love! Enjoy this first part, because there will be more…

In no particular order:

Interview with the Vampire – the movie (1994)

Based on the novel of the same name by Anne Rice, which is the first in a series of numerous books in her Vampire Chronicles saga, this movie was just a phenomenal success in terms of its adaptation, in my humble opinion. The set, costume, lighting, and sound design work together in perfect union to convey the atmosphere and time periods captured in the novel, and the casting was – quite surprisingly – outstanding. Kirsten Dunst in her breakout role as Claudia, a child turned child vampire turned adult vampire trapped in her child body, is a particular highlight for me. She wore that character like a second skin and performed her with a nuance that I was surprised about, considering she was so young. And I would never have envisioned a perfect Lestat portrayed by Tom Cruise, but he absolutely nailed it.

The Mist – movie (not the Netflix show, which we won’t talk about…)

I’ve talked about this film forever, so I may as well talk about it a bit again, because it’s one of my very favourites. Frank Darabont is the king of Stephen King adaptations, I think, but this is my favourite (yes, even above The Shawshank Redemption, and The Green Mile). The reason this takes the crown for me is because this is one of the very rare instances where I believe the screen version elevated the source material. I can’t begin to tell you how much I love King’s novella, it’s one of my favourite books of all time, but Darabont’s iteration of it is, dare I say, even better. Not only did he truly capture the characters and the feel of the story (King has a particular feel to his writing that hardly anyone manages to translate), but I believe that the changes Darabont made raised the stakes and the horror. This, to me, is the meaner-spirited Richard Bachman’s version of The Mist.

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This show is an adaptation of Joe Hill’s wondrous work of horror of the same name, and the story follows Vic McQueen as she battles a mysterious, vampiric villain called Charlie Manx. Charlie believes he’s doing good by kidnapping children he thinks are in unsuitable homes, murdering their parents, and whisking them away to a magical place where he promises they’ll never feel sadness again. I love this show because it took the source material and the character peril so seriously, while also throwing in the odd meta joke, and capturing the magic of Hill’s writing, which I believe is in the way he wields horror through fantasy. I discovered it and the next thing I knew, I’d binged the entire thing within days.

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

Director Terence Fisher did a wonderful job with this film. There must be a thousand screen versions of Mary Shelley’s classic novel, Frankenstein, but this early offering is my absolute favourite. In terms of focus, it does deviate a little from the source material, but only in the sense that there’s so much focus on the doctor, rather than the monster or anyone else, which I think was a great choice. This is the story of a man and his passion for science, turned into the abuse of it. I believe it’s one of the few versions that also really highlights one of the lesser-spotted themes, which is that of a neglectful parent. Frankenstein is obsessed with his own genius, his goals, and his experiments (beautifully depicted in the sets, by the way!), and much less concerned with the ramifications of building his own offspring.

Doctor Sleep

I expect to hear some protests about this making my list, while I neglect The Shining. Buuuut, while I think The Shining is a great movie, I don’t think it’s a great adaptation. However, Doctor Sleep most certainly is. This is based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, and it’s a sequel to The Shining. Now, there were layers of challenges for director Mike Flanagan to overcome with this adaptation. He was making a movie based on a book, but that also had to work as a sequel to Kubrick’s movie, and Kubrick made several significant changes to The Shining, including some major things concerning characters and the hotel itself. I was scratching my head when this film was announced because I was wondering how the hell Flanagan was going to pull this off in a way that would serve both audiences. I needn’t have worried. He’s possibly as good as Frank Darabont when it comes to adapting King (or anyone else, for that matter).

The Fall of the House of Usher – Netflix series

Speaking of Mike Flanagan, there was no way one of his shows wasn’t also making this list. I love the way he makes his shows because he is so creative with whichever source material he’s adapting, but I think he excelled himself here. It isn’t just Usher but many of Poe’s works woven into this limited series, with a contemporary lift that brings these classic stories to a modern audience. It made me want to reread all of the Poe. Another thing I think is great is that despite the many changes, the additions, the pulling apart and stitching back together of the inspirations, the atmosphere and tone of Poe’s work still shines through.

The Silence

This Netflix movie directed by John R. Leonetti is based on the fantastic novel by Tim Lebbon, and it will forever annoy me that enough people haven’t seen it. It also annoys me that those who have compare it to A Quiet Place, despite the fact this novel came first. And also, this film might have had a smaller budget than AQP, but I think it’s superior. The origin of the sound-hunting monsters is more interesting to me, the characters are much fuller and the family dynamic is wonderful, and the human element is really explored both in terms of survival, and the antagonists that come out of the woodwork. It’s underseen and underrated.

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Don’t worry, I’m not here to rave about Season 4 of the show because, honestly, what the f was that? But the first few seasons of this show based on the books by Caroline Kepnes are great, I think, particularly season 1. A couple of changes were made from the book to make the show palatable, and I think this was a great call. The messaging of the book was still conveyed, but in a way that made Joe Goldberg watchable. Had they run with the version of Joe in the book without alteration, I can’t imagine anyone would have made it through even one season, not in that guy’s internal monologue. He is a horrible, despicable, irredeemable monster in the book and his internal monologue is not humorous or entertaining, but deeply uncomfortable to be in. Show Joe has a dry wit and an often comical lack of self awareness and hypocrisy, and one of the reasons he’s so enjoyable to watch is that he’s often thinking his bitchy little comments about characters that we also hate. I worry a bit about how much people seem to genuinely like this version of him, though! Lest we forget, “this is the skin of a killer, Bella!”

30 Days of Night

One of the greatest vampire movies of all time, based on the comics by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith. Set in Alaska, this is the story of a town that shuts up shop for the dark period of the year, where the sun doesn’t rise for a whole month (in real life, it’s actually closer to 60 days, which I know because I tried to book a holiday in this town during this period and THEY WON’T LET YOU! Can’t believe they won’t give me what I wanna eat, what I wanna drank). Anyway, unfortunately for the people that live there, vampires also know this and roll up on the town, knowing they’re isolated, cut off, and at their mercy. The movie elevates the source material, I think, because the vampires are absolutely horrifying. I love them so much.

FYI, the novelisation by Tim Lebbon is also outstanding and well worth your time.

The Ritual

Last but not least, The Ritual, based on the novel by Adam Nevill. I love this film for several reasons. It’s about four guys that take a trip into the wilderness in honour of a friend, who was sadly killed. Firstly, the casting for our group of dudes is almost majestic in its perfection. The lead is a complicated, guilt-ridden, and stubborn guy, and the others in the group do such a great job of illuminating more of his character by the way they respond to him. The dynamics here are some of my favourite in all of fiction. Secondly, in the book, there’s quite a tone shift at the midway point. I think it works for the novel but I was worried about how it might shift things onscreen, but director David Bruckner deviated slightly and thought of something a little more screen-effective. I have all of the love for this adaptation and a heightened appreciation of Rafe Spall.

And that’s it, for this list anyway. There are more on the horizon. I’d love to hear what your favourite adaptations are if I neglected them here!

Bleeeeat!